...there isn't often anything in Wagner opera that one would call by such a violent name as acting.

There is no accounting for human beings.

Humor is the great thing, the saving thing after all. The minute it crops up, all our hardnesses yield, all our irritations, and resentments flit away, and a sunny spirit takes their place.

Always obey your parents. When they are present. This is the best policy in the long run. Because if you don't, they will make you. Most parents think they know better than you do, and you can generally make more by humoring that superstition than you can by acting on your own better judgment.

Do something everyday that you don't want to do; this is the golden rule for acquiring the habit of doing your duty without pain.

It usually takes me more than three weeks to prepare a good impromptu speech.

An enemy can partly ruin a man, but it takes a good-natured injudicious friend to complete the thing and make it perfect.